The FIDH-AE calls on the European Union to renounce to the conclusion of Readmission Agreements and to commit its Future Cooperation to the creation of equitable asylum and immigration policies

Mr. President,
Dear Madam or Sir

In September 2000 the Council first issued a mandate to the Commission to negotiate the conclusion of readmission agreements with Morocco, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka; since, other countries were added to the list: Hong Kong, Macao, Ukraine and Albania. On the ground of such agreements, contracting countries are not only under obligation to readmit on their territory their own nationals who entered illegally in the EU but also migrants of third countries or stateless persons who have transited or stayed on their territory. In the working group on March 29th 2004 "Migration and Readmission" you will be discussing the progress of negotiations with Morocco.

On behalf of its leagues in the European countries, FIDH-AE deplores the multiplication of such readmission agreements and recalls that they contravene the commitments that the Member States have undertaken by ratifying International Conventions. We ask the leaders of the European Union to cease focusing their Migration policy exclusively on the fight against clandestine immigration and to commit instead to an equitable asylum policy and an actual legal immigration policy.